White Starkling Christmas
by The Hope Lions
Summary: A cute Christmas oneshot set between chapters 17 and 18 of my fic Starkling. Daisy Stark misses New York's white Christmases. Her dad has something to say about that.


So it's real feel 68 at my house right now and I'm missing my traditional white Christmases. So here is to everyone in the North Atlantic states who are wondering what happened.

* * *

December 2008

Daisy's first year with her dad had certainly been interesting if nothing else. She'd learned to love him and then begun to hate him. She'd lost him, and then she'd gotten him back. He'd become a freaking Superhero for Christ's sake! Daisy had been kidnapped, and so had her dad for that matter. All and all one year with her dad was more interesting than fifteen-and-a-half years as an orphan.

It hadn't always been the good kind of interesting either. Daisy didn't like to think about how she'd lived when her dad was in Afghanistan. She didn't like to think about how terrified she'd been when she saw Obadiah paralyze him, or when Obadiah locked her in the suit. She didn't even like to think about the time before that. Her presence hadn't been enough to make Tony turn away from his playboy ways, and that hurt her. She didn't like to think about it, but she did.

But then there had been the good times. She remembered decorating the tree with Pepper, Rhodey, and Tony. She remembered the feeling of safety inside Tony's arms after he got back from Afghanistan. She remembered the thrill of knowing her dad was the superhero saving people. Daisy remembered all the shared jokes, the little smiles. She knew her and her dad weren't normal and never would be, but she also knew that they had something good. There were a lot of bad times during the first year, but there were also so many good ones.

Mostly Daisy was just shocked that the year had passed so quickly. There were still times when Daisy was sure that the noises she woke up to were just the other orphans. There were still times when Daisy waited for the words 'We just have to send you back' to leave Tony's mouth.

And then there were other times when that life felt so terribly far away. When Daisy couldn't imagine being a D student instead of the Valedictorian of a class she wasn't supposed to graduate with. When she didn't even notice that her dad had yet to take the suit off, and she just spoke to him through it. When she couldn't even remember who Mary Sue Poots was, and couldn't forget how to be Daisy Stark.

So, when asked by Tony a few weeks back how she'd felt about her first year, she'd just stuck with interesting. There was no real way to describe the year, and Tony understood that. He understood his daughter quite well really.

The house was decorated for Christmas. Pepper, Rhodey, Tony and Daisy had spent the entirety of Christmas Eve day hanging up lights, making bows, and putting up the tree. Finally they sat back to enjoy their work, sipping their eggnog (non-alcoholic in Daisy's case), and listening to The Carpenter's "Christmas Collection".

"I still miss a good New York white Christmas though," Daisy sighed, watching the fire flicker. They'd actually gotten snow the week before, from some freak storm up north, but it was long melted and far too warm to snow again. "Like it's nice not to be cold all the time, but Christmas is like the one day a year it should be cold."

Pepper and Rhodey murmured an agreement, yet Tony stayed silent. For a second Daisy thought he was upset about something, but then a grin broke out on his face and he sprung up from the couch.

"People open one present on Christmas Eve, right?" He questioned, pulling a little box from underneath the tree. It was wrapped in bright red paper, and twinkled under the lights. "You're opening one present on Christmas Eve."

Daisy had never done that. She'd barely even gotten presents many years. Still, she wasn't going to object to getting a gift early. Tony handed her the little box, and she unwrapped it furiously, never the type to save the paper. Underneath was another box, which Daisy had to get scissors to cut open. When she did, however, she smiled.

It was an ornament, like the ones Maria Stark always used to buy Tony. Well, not exactly like them, because this one was in the shape of Iron Man, but pink instead of the red. "Is this a hint that the larger Iron Woman suit is coming tomorrow?" Daisy teased actually hoping he'd say yes.

Of course he didn't, but Tony did laugh. "Keep dreaming. No, I was just thinking about how much the special ornaments my mom bought me still make me smile, and I thought it would be nice for you to have that as well."

Daisy almost wanted to cry. Two years ago she'd never have imagined Tony Stark as the sentimental type. He totally was though, and so Daisy was careful to hang the ornament up on the tree before hugging her dad tight. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear, feeling his strong arms, his warm breath and knowing without a doubt that she was safe and loved. That was something she could never have imagined two years ago either.

"It's nothing, really it's technically a statue of me, so…" Tony trailed off, smiling even as he objected. "Now to bed, Santa's coming."

Daisy rolled her eyes. Was he going to do this every year? "Still know he's not real," she chuckled grabbing her stuff anyways to head to bed.

As she walked to her room, she head Tony speak to Rhodey and Pepper, "That's what she thinks."

When Daisy woke up the house was surprisingly quiet. Her clock read eight, so Tony was surely up, but Daisy couldn't hear him at all. And that was rare, because her dad was loud in the mornings, and usually had something on fire.

The only time it was quiet when Daisy woke up was when Tony wasn't home, but she had no idea where he could be. Was there some disaster? What could possibly be happening to draw Iron Man away from his family on Christmas day?

Worried that the world was ending or something, Daisy flipped on the news and was astounded by the sight. She'd expected collapsing buildings, perhaps the Hulk figured he was green enough to return for Christmas. But nope, it wasn't some sort of disaster, it was snow.

"No one can explain the phenomenon. It's fifty three degrees Fahrenheit here in Malibu, and yet the snow just keeps coming down," a reporter, wearing just a sweatshirt and hiding from the snow with an umbrella, announced. "Whatever the cause, we can all agree on one thing-it's nice to have a white Christmas."

Daisy laughed hysterically as she noticed a blur of red amid the snow clouds behind the reporter. It was snowing despite the warm weather and Daisy knew why.

The suit was cold and wet, but the moment Tony landed Daisy hugged him anyways. "It was simple excitation of the particles in the atmosphere," he shrugged, removing the suit as soon as she let go. "I can't really make it stick to the ground, but it's better than nothing."

"It's perfect," Daisy promised, her smile wide enough to hurt. "Thank you, so much. You're such a ridiculous human being and I love it."

Tony shrugged, pretending it was no big deal to just randomly make it snow. "Hey, I'm from New York too you know. We could all use a little bit of snow this Christmas."


End file.
